BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON, 31 January 2003 — America’s closest friends in Europe urged those opposed to invading Iraq to line up behind George W. Bush yesterday, formalizing a split in the continent over Iraq.
Bush said he will give diplomacy “weeks not months” and that the United States would welcome President Saddam Hussein going into exile.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and seven others including the leaders of Italy, Poland and Spain signed an open letter calling on the peace camp — implicitly Germany, France and Russia — to rally to the US standard against Iraq.
“The trans-Atlantic relationship must not become a casualty of the current Iraqi regime’s attempts to threaten world security,” they wrote in a letter printed in several newspapers.
The letter was signed by Britain’s Tony Blair, Spain’s Jose Maria Aznar, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi, Portugal’s Jose Manuel Barroso, Hungary’s Peter Medgyessy, Poland’s Leszek Miller, Denmark’s Anders Fogh Rasmussen and President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic.
There was no sign of a change of heart, however. Public opinion in France, Germany and elsewhere remains firmly opposed to an American-run war and Greece, the European Union president, slammed the letter for undermining efforts at EU unity.
The European Parliament warned against unilateral military action against Iraq, and also agreed that preemptive military strikes could be illegal. But reflecting deep divisions within Europe over the issue, the warning received far from overwhelming support, with 287 deputies voting for and 209 against.
President Pat Cox reiterated that Europe wants the issue dealt with through the UN Security Council, but also reiterated that the onus remains on Saddam Hussein.
“For the sake of peace, this issue must be resolved,” Bush said after meeting with Berlusconi. In the Oval Office session with Berlusconi, Bush put allies on notice that he will not wait long to act against Saddam, even if the United Nations refuses to back his actions. “This is a matter of weeks not months,” Bush said.
Bush said he was open to the idea of Saddam going into exile. “Should he choose to leave the country, along with other henchmen who have tortured...Iraqi people, we will welcome that, of course,” Bush said. He said, however, that the US would continue to insist that Iraq disarm, regardless of who governs the nation.
Bush was to meet later with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.
Another ally — Canada — objected to any unilateral action by the United States against Iraq. “If one state acts by itself it risks consequences,” said Bill Graham, the foreign minister of Canada. Graham met with Secretary of State Colin Powell and said afterward that the United Nations had a responsibility to force Iraq to disarm.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon announced the mobilization of up to 6,000 military reservists for a possible war with Iraq, four times the number previously announced. In a written statement to the House of Commons, Hoon said callout notices would be sent “over the coming weeks.”
Britain already has ordered 35,000 troops — including a quarter of the army — to head to the Gulf for possible military action. The deployment includes Britain’s biggest naval task group in 20 years, made up of warships, an aircraft carrier, a helicopter carrier and a submarine, and carrying 3,000 Royal Marines and some 5,000 sailors.
Some 48,000 British troops participated in the 1991 Gulf War.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said arms inspectors had not found a gross violation of a UN resolution on disarmament in Iraq as yet but urged Baghdad to do more to cooperate with the UN mission.
Mohamed El Baradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told BBC Radio his inspectors would only report Iraq to be in breach if there were a “gross violation” of the UN resolution, not for sluggish cooperation.
Asked on BBC Radio whether non-cooperation constituted a material breach, El Baradei said: “If they (the Security Council) decide that this is a material breach, then that is their prerogative.”
“We are not going to say that this is a material breach unless obviously we see a gross violation of the resolution. But even then it is for the Security Council to pronounce itself on this issue,” he said.
Two more Iraqi scientists refused to be interviewed in private by UN arms experts yesterday, the inspectors’ spokesman Hiro Ueki said in his daily report.
Iraqi officials said Baghdad has invited UN disarmament chiefs Hans Blix and El Baradei to return to Baghdad before Feb. 10 to hold fresh talks on cooperation with the UN mission. (Agencies)
